/etc/init.d/rsyslog is an init script not a link to /lib/init/upstart-job

[Joshua Timberman]

Using Canonical-provided AMI of Ubuntu 14.04, or the LXC Ubuntu 14.04 template, /etc/init.d/rsyslog is an init script. In Ubuntu 10.04 or 12.04, /etc/init.d/rsyslog was a symbolic link to /lib/init/upstart-job.

The problem here is that the init script does this:

. /lib/lsb/init-functions

And that file has this function, used later in /etc/init.d/rsyslog:

init_is_upstart()
{
   if [ -x /sbin/initctl ] && /sbin/initctl version 2>/dev/null | /bin/grep -q upstart; then
       return 0
   fi
   return 1
}

Running /etc/init.d/rsyslog with start or restart commands results in a return code of 1 because the case statement for these uses the init_is_upstart function:

        if init_is_upstart; then
                exit 1
        fi

I modified /etc/init.d/rsyslog on an instance to add "set -x", and here's the results of running /etc/init.d/rsyslog start

ubuntu@rsyslog-bug:~$ sudo /etc/init.d/rsyslog start
+ PATH=/sbin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin
+ DESC=enhanced syslogd
+ NAME=rsyslog
+ RSYSLOGD=rsyslogd
+ DAEMON=/usr/sbin/rsyslogd
+ PIDFILE=/var/run/rsyslogd.pid
+ SCRIPTNAME=/etc/init.d/rsyslog
+ [ -x /usr/sbin/rsyslogd ]
+ [ -r /etc/default/rsyslog ]
+ . /etc/default/rsyslog
+ RSYSLOGD_OPTIONS=
+ . /lib/lsb/init-functions
+ run-parts --lsbsysinit --list /lib/lsb/init-functions.d
+ [ -r /lib/lsb/init-functions.d/20-left-info-blocks ]
+ . /lib/lsb/init-functions.d/20-left-info-blocks
+ [ -r /lib/lsb/init-functions.d/50-ubuntu-logging ]
+ . /lib/lsb/init-functions.d/50-ubuntu-logging
+ LOG_DAEMON_MSG=
+ FANCYTTY=
+ [ -e /etc/lsb-base-logging.sh ]
+ true
+ init_is_upstart
+ [ -x /sbin/initctl ]
+ /bin/grep -q upstart
+ /sbin/initctl version
+ return 0
+ exit 1

The fix here is to properly create a symlink of /lib/init/upstart-job to /etc/init.d/rsyslog, which will provide the sysv/lsb compatible interface to manage the upstart job. This should be done in the package, not by end users who are attempting to control their rsyslog service.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Joshua Timberman (jtimberman)]

I've added a "affects openssh-server" because I'm seeing that /etc/init.d/ssh is an init script as well, instead of a link to /lib/init/upstart-job.

# file /etc/init.d/ssh
/etc/init.d/ssh: POSIX shell script, ASCII text executable

Contains:

check_for_upstart() {
    if init_is_upstart; then
        exit $1
    fi
}

ubuntu@ssh:~$ sudo /etc/init.d/ssh restart
[sudo] password for ubuntu:
ubuntu@ssh:~$ echo $?
1
ubuntu@ssh:~$ sudo restart ssh
ssh start/running, process 460
ubuntu@ssh:~$ echo $?
0

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

This change was made intentionally according to a policy change:

  https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UpstartCompatibleInitScripts

So I'm not going to change openssh itself, nor I think should rsyslog be changed. However, I believe some of the Upstart folks were looking into a quite different centralised solution to the underlying problem you're encountering; I forget the details but I think it was to have /lib/lsb/init-functions deal with automatically redirecting manual /etc/init.d/foo calls to the corresponding Upstart jobs.

(Note, though, that you can and should use the "service" command, which abstracts away these changes.)

[Joshua Timberman (jtimberman)]

Are all services shipped in Ubuntu packages for 14.04 using these scripts, rather than the link to upstart-job? Which version of Ubuntu was that change made? Is this something users can rely upon being consistent? There's lots of automation code out there that use the old scripts.

[Joshua Timberman (jtimberman)]

I see the wiki page mentions Saucy (13.10). Is that the reference point where this change is in effect?

[QuentinHartman (qhartman)]

Trying to change my syslog config today this bit me . I couldn't figure out why my changes weren't working, and since I don't write syslog filters often I figured I was screwing something up. Turns out they were fine. "/etc/init.d/rsyslog restart" was just silently doing nothing. This is terrabad. If it's capable of doing what I ask it to, it should. At the very very least, it should display a message along the lines of "This won't work. Do \"service rsyslog restart\" instead.".